Hi, I'm Ravi Agruwal, Foreign Policy's Editor-in-Chief. This is FP Live.

It is the new year, and with the new year comes our newest print magazine. So here's what I thought we'd do today.

I will tell you about the issue, of course, but one of the essays in there

is mine, and I wanted to air it out here, an audio essay of sorts. Let's start with the full

collection. We're calling this one Trump World. The cover, which I find quite striking, was put together

by our amazing creative director, Lori Kelly. It shows a giant-sized

Donald Trump holding a piece of a roller coaster track. Because frankly, there is no question

that Trump's presidency will be a roller coaster. The question is, is he pulling apart that

roller coaster, breaking the global system? Or is he trying to fix

what he sees as broken? It's a bit of a Rorschach test. The cover leaves it open for readers to decipher.

Well, there are five essays in this issue. There's Corey Shaki on Biden's foreign policy legacy, Ruggeram Rajin,

on what actually happens when countries turn inward, Adam Toos on America's surprising

new class war, Dan Dresner on the so-called madman theory of international relations,

and how it plays out in Trump's White House.

And finally, an essay by yours truly, and that is the audio essay, I promised, for this episode.

Here's what it's about.

Commentators have gotten into the habit of saying Trump is, quote, transactional.

But what does that even mean? And is it really as bad for the world

as detract as fear it is? That's what I wanted to explore. Let's be clear. All leaders are transactional

at some level. What defines Trump, what makes him unique, is his unabashed opportunism,

often at the expense of professed values, alliances, and even treaties. For Trump, every transaction

is zero-sum with a clear winner and loser. And more than anything else, Trump likes to be seen as a winner,

...